Congress approves final piece of health care overhaul

WASHINGTON — Congress Thursday passed and sent to President Barack Obama the final piece of landmark health care legislation intended to change dramatically how most Americans buy, use and maintain insurance coverage.

The House approved the bill by a vote of 220 to 207 Thursday night, hours after the Senate passed the measure by a vote of 56 to 43. No Republicans in either chamber voted for either bill.

This legislation, combined with the bill signed into law on Tuesday, will bring the most significant change in health care policy since Medicare was created in 1965 to provide health insurance coverage for seniors and the disabled.

The new laws will extend health insurance coverage to 32 million people who currently are uninsured. They will expand coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans. Consumers will find a host of changes in how they deal with doctors, insurers, hospitals and the rest of the health care system.

Most people will have to obtain coverage by 2014 or face penalties. Most employers will have to offer policies by then, and consumers will be able to shop for coverage through new exchanges, or marketplaces.

Several provisions will take effect within the next year. Some Medicare prescription drug beneficiaries will get a $250 rebate this year.

By fall, insurers will no longer be able to put lifetime caps on coverage, and must allow young people to remain on their parents' policies until they turn 26. Insurers also will be barred from dropping coverage when people get sick and from refusing to cover children with pre-existing conditions.

Starting in January 2011, insurers in the individual and small group market will be required to spend 80 percent of their premium dollars on medical services. Those in larger group markets would have to spend 85 percent. If they don't comply, they'd have to give consumers rebates.

The reconciliation bill approved Thursday contains fixes to the big health care bill that Obama signed into law Tuesday, and was part of a political deal needed to get both measures through Congress.

House Democrats had objected to several provisions in the new law, notably an excise tax on high-end insurance policies that labor unions fought, as well as a series of special deals for individual lawmakers. The reconciliation bill delayed the tax until 2018, and some of the controversial deals were eliminated.

The bill will give more government help with insurance premiums for lower and middle class families and aid to states for Medicaid, the state-federal health program for lower-income people.

To help pay for the changes, wealthier people will pay more Medicare payroll tax starting in 2013.

Single people who earn more than $200,000 a year, and joint filers who make more than $250,000, will see the tax increase by 0.9 percentage points in 2013, to 2.35 percent, and will pay a new 3.8 percent tax on dividends, interest and other unearned income.

The reconciliation bill's passage has been assured all week. Republicans tried to insert changes, forcing votes on 40 amendments or procedural points, but Democrats rejected each on party line votes Wednesday and Thursday.

The GOP's effort seemed to lose steam as the "vote-a-rama," a series of nonstop votes that lasted until 2:45 a.m. Thursday, progressed.

Then, GOP opponents turned their attention to November's elections. Their floor speeches and statements outlined themes they're likely to stress as they return home this weekend and throughout the year.

He called the measure "a vast expansion of the entitlement state that we can't afford, massive cuts to Medicare, higher taxes, higher health care costs, worse care, taxpayer-funded abortions and don't believe the spin: This wasn't a party line vote. A whole lot of Democrats voted against it."

Thirty-four Democrats opposed the main bill in the House, and 33 opposed the reconciliation measure. Three Senate Democrats — Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas — voted no Thursday.

Democrats insisted, however, that they now have strong arguments to make, claiming the bill will provide more jobs, more peace of mind and reduce the federal deficit. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the $938 billion measure will reduce deficits by $143 billion over the next 10 years.

"As we start the spring by closing a chapter in health reform's long history, it's really a new beginning for all America," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

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